Automotive Producers Seek Road Map Consent

At present, one among the major concerns challenging the auto industry will be the standard road map. Rommel R. Gutierrez, the present President of Chamber of Auto Producers of the Philippines Inc, most recently said that they are very much taking part in the groundwork of the latest road map by the agencies that are led by government, and they would give their best shot to create the road map that would remain largely in tune with the current market trends as well as needs and tastes of the auto industry.

Presently, the Board of Investments is mainly involved in vigorous discussions regarding the auto road maps, and expected to offer both non-fiscal and fiscal spurs to the automotive industry. It has been projected that the creation of the road maps would certainly aid in doubling the overall industry outputs to almost 534,000 total units by 2022.

On the other hand, Arthur A. Balmadrid, the Corporate Business Division’s Vice President of Isuzu Philippines Corporation said that they require the road map permitted immediately, since they are completely running out of vehicles to localize, and also they have been stopping their principal from dragging producing from the nation as they wish to preserve their workforce.

He added that those kinds of spurs are very much required to assist the growth of the present market, or else many auto manufacturing companies would definitely have to pull out completely. Arthur mentioned that the entry of 0 percent tariff totally developed units, mainly low priced, or all those models that are produced in many other nations, will obviously influence the local automotive industry without any doubt.

Already, one of the leading car makers has declared its plans to completely shut down its production plant that is located within the state. On 27th June 2012, Ford Philippines pronounced that it is planning to shut down its production unit situated on Sta. Rosa, Laguna region by 2012 December, after experiencing very weak local demand for vehicles, and largely declined supply base for almost 13 long years.

Recently, Mr. Gutierrez told that it is very vital that any modifications to the nation’s FTA (Free Trade Agreements) concerning to the auto industry be precisely meaningful and highly receptive to exactly what is required by the industry, particularly when the assessment for the upcoming JPEPA (Japan Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement) is in progress.

At present, the standard JPEPA condition is that all vehicles with standard displacement of 3-liters and above will benefit from absolute zero tariff charges.